When People Ask You

Today on “On the Square,” I Was Ignorant, and You Taught Me , a list of some lessons I’ve learned from years of responding to letters from strangers who wrote with religious questions. For example,

Never rebuke or confront even the most obnoxious inquirer, unless you know him well enough to judge that you can fruitfully do so. Many people often write (or speak) much more rudely than they mean to because they have no idea how their words sound to others, and those who mean to be rude will not respond well to being rebuked. Answer them as if they had written politely. If they didn’t mean to be rude, this will encourage them to keep talking. If they meant to be rude, this will either convert them or annoy them. Both have their uses.